“Yes!” she said. “He has to make it right. He has to make it right with Lexie. He should have done it way back then, when she was leaving for the bus. God, he gave her whatever little bit of cash he had in his wallet.” She shook her head, this thought profoundly distasteful to her. “That must have made her feel worse, and yet she was desperate enough to take it. That speaks volumes. We have to find her. She’s out there. There’s still time to make it right. He has to do now what he should have done then. Apologize. Make reparations. Help her with rehab, her mother’s funeral, whatever she needs. He derailed her life, Marshall. He owes her. So we find her now, and he does everything he can to make it right.”

Her eyes were shining. She’d seen a way through that she could live with.

Marshall had his doubts. “You think he’ll do that?”

In his experience wealthy, powerful men, even the nicest ones, were bad at admissions and apologies. Hell, rich men were bad at shame in general. Not to mention Trey’d had a chance already to tell Bree this story. His son’s life had been at stake, and Trey had lied to her.

Her tears had stopped entirely, though. She was pacing, talking faster now, her hands smoothing over the baby as he stretched and cooed.

“Yes. He will. I know him. He’s a good man. We find Lexie. Maybe she won’t be open to his amends, but we do have to try. He should give money to help fix the larger problem, too. I mean, this still happens. We can donate to campus awareness at UVA, rape hotlines, women’s centers. But we start with an apology.”

“Privately,” Marshall said. Because that, maybe, Trey would do. A public admission? No. But he clearly still carried guilt over this, and if he did apologize to Lexie, make reparations? Bree was sweet, and she was forgiving, and she adored him. Maybe it could work?

“I hope privately. I don’t want the girls to ever, ever know about this, if it can be helped,” she said. “That’s up to Lexie, though. I think? In my head I’ve been thinking of her as this terrifying thing. We’ve got ex-marines all over the place. I’ve been so scared. But that picture. She’s so small, and scared, and hurting.”

Marshall shook his head. “We don’t know how deeply Lexie was embroiled in her mother’s plan. She could very well be a threat.”

Bree nodded. “We won’t know until we find her.” She paused, sucked in a breath. “If Lexie helped with Geoff—I don’t know. We can’t know until you track her down.”

“I’m working on it,” Marshall said. His whole team was. Gabrielle was on it, too, and cops in two states.